Hyperolius nitidulus Peters, 1875

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Hyperoliidae > Subfamily: Hyperoliinae > Genus: Hyperolius > Species: Hyperolius nitidulus

Hyperolius nitidulus Peters, 1875, Monatsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1875: 209. Holotype: ZMB 7729 according to Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 92, and Bauer, Günther, and Klipfel, 1995, in Bauer et al. (eds.), Herpetol. Contr. W.C.H. Peters: 44. Type locality: "Yoruba (Lagos)", Nigeria.

Rappia nitidulaTornier, 1896, in Möbius (ed.), Deutsch Ost-Afr., 3: 153.

Hyperolius pallidus Mertens, 1940, Zool. Anz., 131: 243. Holotype: NHMW 16862, according to original publication. Type locality: "Poli bei Garua, Nordkamerun". Synonymy with Hyperolius tuberculatus by Schiøtz, 1967, Spolia Zool. Mus. Haun., 25: 228, and Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 198.

Hyperolius viridiflavus nitidulusLaurent, 1951, Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 82: 43.

Hyperolius viridiflavus angeli Laurent, 1951, Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 82: 41. Holotype: MNHNP 1921.34b, by original designation. Type locality: "Gribingui, Oubangi-Chari", Central African Republic. Synonymy by Channing, 2022, Zootaxa, 5134: 334. 

Hyperolius nitidulus aureus Perret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 416. Holotype: MHNG 1038.39, by original designation. Type locality: "Ngaoundéré", Cameroon.

Hyperolius nitidulus nitidulusPerret, 1966, Zool. Jahrb., Jena, Abt. Syst., 93: 289–464, by implication.

Hyperolius nitidulus pallidus — Schiøtz, 1971, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 134: XXX. 

English Names

Plain Reed Frog (Hyperolius viridiflavus pallidus: Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 8).

Chalky Reed Frog (Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 170).

Peter's Reed Frog (Auliya, Wagner, and Böhme, 2012, Bonn Zool. Bull., 61: 259).

Distribution

West African savannas from Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and southern Mali eastwards into Nigeria, Burkina Faso, northern Cameroon, and western Central African Republic; expected in southern Chad, southern Niger, southern Mauritania.  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

Likely/Controversially Present: Gambia, Liberia, Niger

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Hyperolius marmoratus by Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 199 (who provided an account). Formerly it had been placed in synonymy with Hyperolius viridiflavus by Schiøtz, 1971, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 134: 49; with Hyperolius marmoratus (sensu lato) by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 121–122; with Hyperolius picturatus by Loveridge, 1955, Rev. Suisse Zool., 62: 130. Considered a subspecies of Hyperolius viridiflavus by Laurent, 1952 "1951", Ann. Soc. R. Zool. Belg., 82: 395; Laurent, 1961, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr., 64: 92. Wieczorek, Drewes, and Channing, 2000, J. Biogeograph., 27: 1241, provided a cladogram of the Hyperolius viridiflavus complex, including this species, and provided a map. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 96, suggested that this species will be found in southern Mauritania. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 75-77, provided records for Nigeria. See comment under Hyperolius spatzi. Rödel, Sandberger-Loua, Penner, Mané, and Hillers, 2010, Bonn Zool. Bull., 57: 177–188, clarified the delimitation of the species, its distinctiveness from Hyperolius spatzi, and its range, suggesting that records from northeastern Nigeria, the driest savannas of Cameroon, and Central African Republic are based on misidentifications. See account for Cameroon by Amiet, 2012, Rainettes Cameroun: 195-203. Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 2–20, reported Hyperolius viridiflavus pallidus from east-north-central Central African Republic. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 217, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. See general discussion of the Hyperolius viridiflavus–parallelus–marginatus group by Schiøtz, 1999, Treefrogs Afr.: 206–228. Auliya, Wagner, and Böhme, 2012, Bonn Zool. Bull., 61: 255–281, reported the species from the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau.  Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 108, provided a map for Angola and noted the record is likely based on a misidentification. Channing and Rödel, 2019, Field Guide Frogs & Other Amph. Afr.: 170–171, provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. Portik, Bell, Blackburn, Bauer, Barratt, Branch, Burger, Channing, Colston, Conradie, Dehling, Drewes, Ernst, Greenbaum, Gvoždík, Harvey, Hillers, Hirschfeld, Jongsma, Kielgast, Kouete, Lawson, Leaché, Loader, Lötters, van der Meijden, Menegon, Müller, Nagy, Ofori-Boateng, Ohler, Papenfuss, Rößler, Sinsch, Rödel, Veith, Vindum, Zassi-Boulou, and McGuire, 2019, Syst. Biol., 68: 859–875, implied in a supplemental figure that this nominal species is a complex. Ayoro, Segniagbeto, Hema, Penner, Oueda, Dubois, Rödel, Kabré, and Ohler, 2020, Zoosystema, 42: 547–582, discussed records, identification, and habitat in Burkina Faso. Tillack, de Ruiter, and Rödel, 2021, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 97: 429, briefly discussed the early literature and collector of the type. Channing, 2022, Zootaxa, 5134: 301–354, discussed the systematics, reidentified a number of GenBank sequences, restricted the range by excluding a number of populations, provided a range map, molecular tree, and a summary of the color patterns for all of the named taxa in the synonymy, and characterized the advertisement call. Ayoro, Nicolas, Segniagbeto, Hema, Ohler, and Kabré, 2023, Afr. J. Ecol., 61: 878-889, provided dots maps for West Africa and modeled the distribution under the affects of climate change. 

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